


Righteous Demon.

by slasher48



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Season/Series 04, Demon Dean Winchester, Episode: s04e01 Lazarus Rising, Episode: s04e07 It's the Great Pumpkin Sam Winchester, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-03
Updated: 2016-03-03
Packaged: 2018-05-18 18:10:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5938048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slasher48/pseuds/slasher48
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Dean had been a demon by the time Castiel found him?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Righteous Demon.

Castiel finds him flayed.

Alastair laughs at him when he takes the demon out of that place in Hell, out of the darkest realms where the High Inquisitor holds court. He can hear the laugh behind him as he grabs onto the smoke, nearly extinguishes it with grace, and leaves, flying up and out and far, far away.

The demon protests with screams being sewn back into his body; Castiel wonders how righteous a man can be if he fights the work of angels. If he becomes a demon—beyond broken, scarred and burnt and without solidity.

The demon forgets, until its blade is dug into the chest of Castiel’s vessel. Jimmy winces behind Castiel’s consciousness, and Castiel sets him to sleep, watching Dean’s human visage carefully. He’ll heal, and Dean’s adjustment is far more important.

“Get the hell out of here, there’s no such thing.” The demon says, tone gruffer than the slyness of his kind. Castiel knows he can see more than he acknowledges. He isn’t sure why Dean resists, but that will end soon enough.

“We have work for you,” he asserts, staring undeterred into Dean where black smoke twists.

666

“He almost killed me, and man. He should’ve.” Dean says to the night, and Castiel tries hard not to hear it—these emotions Dean has somehow held onto are ill-understood and distracting.

Invisible, he rests against the other side of Dean’s car. He had not stayed with Dean for too long, and counts himself lucky in the face of his superiors’ rage that Sam spared the demon’s life. No one has ever really briefed him on the protocol of retrieving a _demon_ after death.

‘The Righteous Demon’ doesn’t have the same gravitas. Human languages are diverse, however; English is perhaps limited. He’ll find other words, other symbols, to denote Dean’s importance and quell his doubts.

Dean is shaking, his countenance visibly soured. Castiel asks himself and his Father once again, silently, _why_. Why ask this of him and of this demon? He decides quickly, as ever, that it isn’t his place to ask, but still, he wonders.

“Doesn’t even know I knew that was Ruby,” the demon spits, and Castiel pays attention again. A conflict between the brothers over another demon will hold much significance. He listens to Dean’s diatribe with intent.

666

“I have questions. I have doubts.” He reveals to Dean. With another demon—any other—this kind of intimacy would mean death, dismemberment, or defeat of some kind. Trusting Dean is as daunting as trusting anyone with the fact that he, an angel, _wonders_ of Heaven’s righteousness. He does, nevertheless.


End file.
